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Hyperlinks opening in the ebook reader

Community Beginner ,
Dec 14, 2022 Dec 14, 2022

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Hi Community!

I've made an epub file, including a lot of hyperlinks. When i open it in Adobe Digital Edition and click on any of them, it opens IN the the ebook reader and no chance to get back to the ebook. No esc, no ctrl+z, etc... Is there any chance to open them in a browser instead of ADE? However it wouldn't be a problem, but the fact that i'm not able to step back is a huge problem. Many thanks!

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

With Bob's comments below noted —

 

A fixed-page EPUB is indeed a horse of many colors. It's a format to be avoided for new works unless nothing else will work (which boils down to mostly-image books that have to go through an EPUB seller).

 

Some apps that manage links have a checkbox or the like for the link to "open in new window" and if you check that, the app or export will add the appropriate code to the link. I don't work much with hyperlinks in INDD or EPUB docs other than TOCs etc., so

...

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Community Expert ,
Dec 14, 2022 Dec 14, 2022

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First, ADE is a pretty lousy tool to test (or read) EPUB documents in. Get a more standard reader like Thorium or Calibre.

 

Second, EPUB is just packaged web pages, so the behavior is much the same as on a browser. If the browser/reader itself is not set to open a new page for a link, it will open the link in the current 'page.' The only way to modify this is to add a "_target=" command to every link, to force it to open in new or otherwise designated page.

 

It might be possible to edit all the links in the source doc using GREP or Find/Replace, to add a _target statement. But you might want to try one or two, manually edited, to make sure the behavior is what you want it to be.

 


╟ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) ╢

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 14, 2022 Dec 14, 2022

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Many thanks James! Let me try it.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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Hi James,

could you please help me, where and how to place that command, if the link is a button?

Many thanks! 

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Community Expert ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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With Bob's comments below noted —

 

A fixed-page EPUB is indeed a horse of many colors. It's a format to be avoided for new works unless nothing else will work (which boils down to mostly-image books that have to go through an EPUB seller).

 

Some apps that manage links have a checkbox or the like for the link to "open in new window" and if you check that, the app or export will add the appropriate code to the link. I don't work much with hyperlinks in INDD or EPUB docs other than TOCs etc., so I may not have an absolute answer.

 

I've just tried several things, and can't seem to figure out how to add the target command to a link within InDesign; frustrating, because I have fairly high mastery of web development. But, a plain link (to Wikipedia) opens in my browser from both Calibre reader and Kindle Previewer. That is — it works, and it works as expected, not opening within the e-book reader. So I am not sure the target command is needed, but maybe another brain here knows what ID wants in the link space to add the target command.

 

So I suspect the behavior you're seeing is peculiar to ADE, which tries to be an all-in-one e-reader and (to continue my gentle deprecation that always amuses Bob) proves to be a zero-in one app. Don't use it; check the link behavior in whatever end point readers you actually expect your users to be using.

 


╟ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) ╢

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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Many thanks for your time and help, James! I'll check other readers now. 

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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So, i've tried Thorium and it's much much better then ADE. Now the "written" hyperlinks are working well, but the others - which are made as buttons - are still don't... But it's a step forward anyway, because earlier those were didn't work either.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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Getting interactive elements to work in either EPUB or PDF is a bit of an art. There are some aspects peculiar to ID's implementation of those features.

 

I'm not up to speed on them, but others here have helped resolve such issues many times in the past.

 


╟ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) ╢

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 14, 2022 Dec 14, 2022

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I forgot to mention it, that i made buttons to open the links, so they are not directly clickable as hyperlinks.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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You also forgot to mention that it's a fixed layout epub. That adds a whole level of complication to this thing. There's just no real standard for it and except for very specialized cases where the reader device and app can be controlled I'm not a big fan anymore. 

 

James was kinder than I would have been referring to ADE; the best device and reader app is the Books app on an iPad. After that Throrium is probably the best bet. I'll let James pop back and give you any advice on editing that markup.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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Oh, sorry about that, i didn't know that it's important... However i've already made it like this, and unfortunately there's no time to change it. 😞 But i need to find a solution anyway.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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Have you tried it in the two apps I referred to?

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Community Expert ,
Dec 15, 2022 Dec 15, 2022

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James was kinder than I would have been referring to ADE; the best device and reader app is the Books app on an iPad. After that Throrium is probably the best bet.

 

Okay, I'll be mean to ADE from now on. It really is a substandard tool, but oddly enough, so are ALL the readers from the major players. I can only assume they all are lost down the road of "we can make it do everyting, and better, too!" 🙂

 

Apple's reader is a very fine reader. But it's down the road of Doing Things Better Because We're Very Smart, and is not a good general EPUB proofer. EPUBs that read fine on vanilla readers can have anything from less-perfect page rendering to actual broken aspects in iBooks. (And sometimes vice-versa; we've seen a number of posters here who can't figure out why only iPad users can read their book.)

 

Thorium is what all EPUB developers should use as their first-read/proofing tool. It's absolutely plain vanilla, no "smarter than" extensions, it's both standards compliant and kept reasonably up to date, and it's available on all platforms. It does have one deep flaw at the moment, a font-size rendering issue that the developers persistently resist fixing. (The code to regularize crummy font sizing is so aggressive that many books are reduced to 1 em/rem text for every style.)

 

If Thorium shows that font size error, the backup is Calibre Reader, which has a few glitches and smarter-than's but will render most EPUBs cleanly and with correct font sizing.

 

And THEN you check EPUBs in iBooks or the other niche or proprietary readers, and see if you can tweak the file to suit both audiences. 🙂

 


╟ Word & InDesign to Kindle & EPUB: a Guide to Pro Results (Amazon) ╢

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